


Paradise

by TheProfoundSilence



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Death Fic, Judgement, Major Character Injury, Mourning, Murder, Percy is a sweetheart, Poseidon is a Loving Parent, Protective Poseidon, Rebirth, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:14:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24716650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheProfoundSilence/pseuds/TheProfoundSilence
Summary: Percy looked up helplessly in disbelief. He had just died, dramatically and suddenly, and was now consoling a super-powerful Olympian God about said death while he cried helplessly like a child. Major character death.
Comments: 30
Kudos: 365





	Paradise

In a way, after Percy had fought and survived the prophecy that predicted his death, after he had fought immortals and clawed back through hell, had become such a bigger-than-life hero that even the Olympian Gods regarded him with respect in their eyes, no death would actually be worthy of a hero like that.

And yet…it was so simple and so tragic that one day when Jason called his bro in a panic about what to wear because he was going to propose and did he look good and did Percy think she would say yes…that Percy laughed and said he’d be there in an hour.

“I just have to check up on Mrs Tucker.” he assured Jason. And Jason still had hours until his date. In Jason’s defense though, he knew Percy would take his sweet time getting there. If anyone asked Percy though Jason was just embracing Zeus’ drama queen side that was usually hidden behind Jupiter’s stern visage.

Percy got up where he was lounging around on his bed and quickly took a shower. As a son of Poseidon, he took at least 3-4 short showers every day. If he had more time, he’d lounge around in a bath and stay there. Forever if he could.

He ambled out into the kitchen, feet bare and hair still wet and got a coffee, calmly sitting by the window and watching the sun rise, mentally rolling his eyes at Jason. That roman had no sense about what ‘early’ was. He woke at 4 in the morning every day. 

Getting his keys, he knocked at his neighbour’s door, and let himself in. Mrs Tucker was old and very frail. She had once had enough money to live and party like an elite, or so she had told Percy. He didn’t actually know if any of it was true or just wistful ramblings of a lonely lady, but she did always make them interesting.

Now her husband was already 6 feet under and her 2 sons were corrupted by money, too busy for their own mother who desperately needed them. They had cared enough to buy her an apartment, though it was hardly The Ritz.

The way she regarded her apartment, a bit disdainful, a bit sad, a bit longing convinced Percy she did actually come from money. It wasn’t huge or grandiose but as a child who had lived and walked through the worst streets of New York, he was impressed and ecstatic. 

He would never honestly have been able to afford such a place, but apparently helping the gods did come with some benefits, or so Hermes seemed to have alluded when he had been delivered the deeds to the apartment and had looked up in confusion to see the mischievous smile of the god as he winked at him and asked him to sign.

Percy walked into the apartment and started on the breakfast. Looking up, he saw Mrs Tucker limp in and smiled at her.

Mrs Tucker beamed at him. “A young dashing man in my apartment, making me breakfast after a night out. I am living the dream.” She laughed. She had a very contagious laugh.

Percy joined in and said, “Oh Sarah. I’d have to be beating other boys away with a stick if I was lucky enough for that. Just last night, I saw the Colonel smile at you. He smiled, Sarah. Smiled! That man is smitten.”

Percy’s smile widened when he saw her blush. Oh yes he was the greatest matchmaker ever. He would have to tell Piper all about how he matched the grumpy and serious Colonel with the resident whirlwind beauty. They would be perfect together.

Sarah still flustered, stuttered. “E-Enough about me. What about your young lady?” She seemed to realize what she had said just as Percy sighed, his smile slipping a little. “She is busy” She is always busy, he thought but didn’t add. The thought was too bitter. 

“She is very ambitious. She has to give her SATS and a few more entrance exams. We both know she’ll get her dream college but she still wants to apply for more just in case. Which is fine, you know. It’s the logical thing to do. But, well…she’s also got an internship that she just could not pass up…”

Percy internally sighed. The months he had been gone had changed Annabeth. She had waited for him and searched for him and missed him, but in a way she had also gotten used to living without him. Or so she said. She was so used to her independence now that she needed a little bit of time to gather her thoughts.

Percy had let her be, because he knew that wasn’t actually the true reason. She wasn’t used to living without him; this mess if anything had scared her into thinking that she was unable to live without him. 

Other campers had told him the truth; how she hadn’t eaten or slept the first few days until they understood he was still relatively safe. How she had lost her desires and her passions, visiting and mourning with his mother at least once every week as if he were already dead. When they had fallen into Tartarus, it had cemented her fears: she was too close, too dependent on him for her happiness.

He may have chosen to fall into Tartarus, but she hadn’t fought his decision. She hadn’t wanted to be separated anymore than he had. 

In a way, he understood. “I’ll be waiting.” he had promised her. After all they had their entire lives ahead of them. Their plans to study in New Rome were put on hold. Percy finished high school and took a gap year as Annabeth went nuts with her studies.

Sarah Tucker sniffed, a disapproving frown on her face. Percy had to resist the urge to tell her off. She didn’t know how long Annabeth had waited and how much she loved him. But he couldn’t get angry for the same reason. She just didn’t know.

“Aw, Sarah. You’re all out of sugar. I’ll get it for you next time I go grocery shopping. I’ve got some in my apartment for now.” Percy had only just gotten out of her apartment when he got shot.

He didn’t even see it coming. He closed the door quietly and when he turned around, BAM!

For a second, he just stared. He was already dead, of course. The bullet had hit him dead centre on the head. It just took him awhile to realize it.

Percy didn’t have a chance, not to see who had shot him so cowardly, not a chance to fight, not even a chance to think, before he dropped to the ground, hands askew, body limp, eyes eerily blank.

Percy is thankful for Thanatos and Hermes. 

For most people, they don’t really afford the luxury tour.

They are at multiple places at once. They have to be to keep up with their duties. But it’s not really their job to calm down the spirits and guide them and keep them calm. They transport, straight and simple. From the mortal world to the underworld.

But when Percy was sitting by the banks of River Styx, head down, feeling blank and dejected and shocked, Thanatos was already there to sit by him, his visage a calming influence on Percy’s dead spirit. 

Percy didn’t know when Hermes came in, just when he looked up, feeling a little less shaken, there was Hermes, his eyes rounder and bigger and his face paler than ever before.

“You’re dead.” he said hoarsely, all his bravado and mischief washed away.

“Yeah, I think so too.” Percy said, shrugging, increasingly reaching an apathetic state. If Percy had thought that being alive was the same as being dead except for the fact that dead are tied to the underworld, he’d be very wrong.

He doesn’t remember when he crosses the Styx. Thanatos had sung him into a trance. 

But he does know the exact moment he crosses it. His fears about how his mom would react, his fear of Annabeth finding out and crying and getting lost and regretting not being together the last few months haunted him.

There were others who’d mourn him too, he thought. But they’d get over it pretty easy. After all, how long had it been since they had even really talked? But… oh Jason, sweet Zeus, Jason was about to propose. This would definitely put a damper on things. And what about Sarah? She was right next door. Was she hurt? Scared?

The Styx washed it all away. His hopes and his dreams and his ambitions, the time he had dreamed about being an astronaut, jumping up and down and dancing about, his ambition about being a businessman, making a business model that would revolutionize America’s greedy capitalist market. His fears about his family and friends, his leftover fear of his own mortality.

It was all drowned in the onslaught. He understood life and death on a more visceral, more intuitive level. It was only in death that everything slowed down, enough that he could ironically breath (or not as the case may be) enough that he could stop worrying. Whatever happened happened and Percy found a surprising acceptance of this fact.

“I think I almost like being dead.” Percy told them. Scratch the almost. It was so peaceful, not worrying about silly things like colleges and admission. He felt…free.

Hermes gripped his caduceus tighter. He seemed to be in an worse mood that when they had first met, which Percy hadn’t even thought was possible. 

Thanatos smiled at him, just as beautiful and compelling as ever. When he spoke, Percy found himself leaning in, starry-eyed. “You have faced a lot in your life my dear. When I say you deserve to die, understand that I mean in the best possible way.” Every syllable on his tongue was savored, every word chosen. 

“He deserves to die?! Do you want to die, Thanatos? Because maybe I can do this honor for you, huh? The boy has family, friends, people who are worried about him, scared for him. So don’t you-”

He was cut short as Thanatos flared up, the normally gentle and kind facade of death showing a more fierce and protective visage. This was the primordial, the very manifestation of death and he did not let souls he had collected pass by easily.

Thanatos looked back to Percy and ordered him to get in line. Percy did not even think about disobeying. He got into line. 

Hermes had regained his bravado. He did not seem like a powerful Olympian. In front of Thantos’ stoic facade, he looked like a deranged lunatic, yelling and getting in Death’s face. When Percy glanced back again, he was crying. Actually, seriously sobbing into the palm of his hands. He wondered what had happened.

The line was painfully slow. He had just moved 3 places up but he kept glancing back. He couldn’t take the terrifying idea of an Olympian god sobbing like a child for whatever reason.

Hermes and Thanatos joined him a few seconds later, much calmer now.

“Do you think I could get Elysium?” Percy wondered.

Hermes surprisingly laughed and Percy felt even worse. Was the thought of him getting Elysium so far-fetched? Thanatos looked at him calmly. “What do you think?”

“I doubt it.” Percy admitted. “I mean, look at how few people get Elysium. You have to be really really good to get Elysium.”

“And you have done bad things?” Thanatos asks. Hermes is just staring at him.

“Well, I don’t know. In quests and all, I have definitely stolen and lied.”

“Pfft.” Hermes waved his hand. Percy stared at him. Right, god of all of this sort of stuff. 

“That’s bad right? I also once erupted Mt Helen. Millions were evacuated. There were a few injuries, maybe even deaths. It was a bit hard to distinguish what I had directly done and what Typhon did. And well, technically it was my fault that Typhon got released anyway.”

“Are you done?”

“I got loads more.”

It was Thanatos who took over this time. “Percy, there is a difference between what is illegal and what is amoral, which most people don’t seem to get. There are no absolutes here. You know how people would tell you that good intentions mean nothing and don’t matter. I can tell you they absolutely do.

Nobody can guarantee success. All we can do is try our best and hope that our best comes from a good place. Even if things go wrong, it doesn’t change the fact that you wanted to do good. And if a man somehow accidentally does a good thing for a bad reason, it doesn’t count as his good dead.”

Percy took a deep breath. He felt scared…maybe apprehensive was a better word. If he were human, he’d have already uncapped Riptide, which was like his safety blanket. 

When he looked up, it was already his turn.

He looked in disbelief. That line had been long. They could have been there for days, maybe even weeks waiting for his turn. Then he turned around and glanced a Hades standing at the edge watching him with a blank look on his face.

Far behind him, he could see the Fates hold up their hand one last time in farewell. He could sense entities, godly powers watching his trial. He curled his toes, feeling exposed. No wonder he’d been bumped up in the line. The entire Underworld was watching to see what happened and to then spread the news to other worlds.

He stepped up. They had a list of everything he had done, and he did mean everything. From the time he had stolen and lied about Smelly Gabe to one of his friends to get him into trouble (he was always yelling at him, making fun of him and sometimes even slapping him around) to when he had fallen so hard off the swing he had broken his right arm (even when Zeus didn’t know about him, air was still his enemy) to every other moment after that.

Hermes was reading his childhood antics with a grin on his face. “Man, were you a funny brat.”

Percy blushed. Dumb was more like it. Like the time he licked a frozen pole on a dare and the time he decided to go swimming with the sharks. When they had pulled him out, he was still insisting they were good and liked being petted by him.

“But did you really used to roam about New York alone?”

Percy shrugged. His mom was always busy, and nobody else really cared for him much. “The trick is to keep your head down and walk fast.”

“What about kidnappers?”

“I must not have been cute enough for them.” Percy guessed.

Hermes looked at him in disbelief. “You bet your safety on not being cute enough?”

“Hey, I was just a kid, okay? I didn’t know.”

The judges cleared their throats. They are all smiling. “It is unanimous.” they declare as one.

“Is it good?” Percy wondered, crossing his fingers.

“Oh yes.” Hermes is smiling at him as he smiles back but their smiles fade when the judges declare, ‘Isles of the Blest. For several lives well lived.’

Plants at the side burst open, showering him with petals, banners hang down from vines declaring Happy Deceased! Percy gets out of his shock first, smiling wide. Thanatos winks at him.

His smile however fades a little when he sees Hermes look angry and disappointed.

He walks over to him, “You don’t seem happy.”

“You are dead. There is not much to be happy about.” This surprises Percy. He hadn’t known they were so close. Sure, Hermes was one of the nicer gods and Percy had helped him out a few times, but honestly Percy had helped a lot of gods out a few times. 

“Your father is distraught.” Percy feels a jolt of guilt. He hadn’t even thought about him. Though then again he was hardly ever around. “The entire Council is mourning your death. The minor gods have chimed in with their anger. It is the first time I have seen Olympus so united. The world is in disarray. They are all very angry and vengeful and nobody is much concerned about the mortals on the ground.”

“I am just one demigod. Dad has had like a bazillion kids before me. He’ll have many more. Worthy capable children who can do him proud. And the rest of the council…I don’t-I thought they hated me.”

“You proved yourself capable and worthy enough on the first quest. In the ancient times, that would have been enough to grant you a great gift from the gods, perhaps even immortality. You know why Zeus didn’t? It would have been a nice little solution to his problems. And it would have indebted your father to him. But he didn’t because even then he respected you. Trust took a bit more time. He is a drama queen, Percy but he has a big heart and he does love you.”

“Oh Styx.”

Hermes went on, tearing up, sobbing a little. “I know we can’t interfere, but I swear we care.”

Percy felt uncomfortable but he hugged Hermes. “I know Hermes. I know. I wouldn’t have fought for Olympus if I didn’t believe that.”

“You always did think the best of everybody. You changed Olympus, you-you did so much. And now you’ll never even be reborn again. You have already accomplished everything you needed or wanted in life.”

Percy looked up helplessly, a little bit in disbelief that he had just died and was now consoling a super-powerful Olympian God about said death while he cried helplessly like a child. It wasn’t that he believed that they were above crying or anything. It was just he had not expected Hermes to feel comfortable enough with him to cry at his shoulders.

Actually, he didn’t even have shoulders anymore because he was dead.

“Um, I can still choose rebirth, right?” It was the only thing he knew how to stop a person from crying. It always worked on her sister anyway. Just give her what she wants.

The judge frowned. “This was your 17th life. You achieved Elysium every time up until the third time you got Isles of the Blest.”

“Why would I ever leave?”

“Some god or other made you promise or guilt-trapped you into being reborn or you were worried about them. Something like that.”

“Tread with caution.” another judge agreed.

“Aw man. Only I can fall for the same trick this many times in a row.” He wanted to get angry, but it’s hard to get angry when the god had been crying and only wanted him back because…why did he want him back? Good gods, even death was complicated.

“Also, leave the area. We are getting behind on our judgement quota for the day.” A path lit up, slowly forming strong vines at the sides as if to say this is the way. It got to the frozen lake, a stone bridge appearing slowly over it, a path to the Isles of the Blest, the most inaccessible and guarded area in the Underworld. And undoubtedly the most beautiful.

He stared in awe. As a mortal demigod, he had seen faded and muted shades in spirits and the Underworld seemed colourless. Here though, he could see not precisely green but muted shades of vibrant red, blue, gold and silver flowers. 

The smell was of the wildest and the purest of forests, with none of the insects and the traps that always got to him. It was moist dirt and the smell of freedom, running free in an abandoned stretch, a smile on his face. It was everything. Everything that was good and happy lay beyond the bridge. 

Hermes grabbed his hand before he could leave. “Promise you’ll come back.” His eyes were no longer moist. They were hard, almost unkind.

Percy tried to tug his hand back. Come back?! To that place of pollution and unhappiness, where he had slaved and tried and still ended up here. This was heaven, this was rest, eternal bliss. Thanatos words’ echoed back to him, he did deserve to die.

Hades reluctantly intervened. “Leave him be, Hermes. It’s his choice. If he wishes to, he may come back in the mortal world. But Percy is gone, Hermes. Whoever he becomes in the next life will have his essence but might have different traits. Death always has a deep impact on the soul.”

He turned to Percy, his dark eyes were weary. “If you spare us a thought, godling, if you think of your poor father up there in mourning, at least think of coming back.”

Far off on the other side of the Styx, souls entered in bulk, jittery and afraid as the gods let themselves mourn with Poseidon particularly heart-broken about his son’s untimely demise. Mortals cowered and wondered how things had suddenly gone so wrong, and would curse their luck for almost 2 years, until Percy relented to another birth and the gods would calm down.

Romans stood strong in formation, faces determined but eyes teary and mournful. Greeks stood right by them, as a beautiful shroud was made. His body was put on a boat and they pushed the boat away from the shore, lighting up their arrows and burning his body in the sea. No wave formed, water did not extinguish the fire.

They all stepped aside, Hades and Hermes unhappy that he was dead, Thanatos unhappy that they had intervened, Percy unhappy about being put on the spot.

It was a very unhappy day.

Percy turned his head and wiping a few stray tears took first his steps to Paradise.

**Author's Note:**

> This one came out of nowhere and I’m thankful for it. I have written quite a bit this lockdown but I never managed to finish up with it and was starting to get antsy about it. To all my other readers, I have not quit Supernatural or Sherlock but this barged in on me and I suddenly found a new passion for this fandom.
> 
> I will be posting more as soon as I finish up with three of my fics which are currently on hold with over 15k words on each of them. I don’t believe in posting before I’m finished because I don’t want to leave you guys hanging.
> 
> Hope you guys are safe and healthy. Review and let me know what you think. It really helps with my motivation.


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